Why do personal trainers need insurance?
Injured clients
As a personal trainer, you design fitness plans that require attention to detail, but you can’t control every scenario. Your client might say a muscle tear they’ve sustained is due to a weight routine you advised or even your instruction during a body pump class. You may not have been there at the time, but if they were training on your advice you may face a negligence claim. PT insurance tailored with combined professional, treatment and public liability insurance could help with legal and compensation costs.
Personal injury
You might hurt yourself teaching a spin class, during a session on the gym floor or even have an accident at home that’s unrelated to training. No matter the cause, being injured can damage your earnings as a fitness instructor or personal trainer. Creating a package of cover that includes personal accident insurance means we’ll be there to help with expenses during your recovery time. This assistance can help you to focus on getting better without worrying about finances.
Broken equipment
You provide a quality service for your clients, so you also use specialised kit that needs looking after. Your client could break a brand new TRX system during a session. On top of that, you rely on technology to organise training – so if you drop and smash your phone, you can’t book sessions. A policy that includes portable equipment insurance could help with replacements and repairs, so you can continue being the personal trainer your clients need with minimal disruption.
What insurance is available for personal trainers?
Personal trainers can buy certain covers as part of a combined product – professional, treatment and public liability insurance. This brings together elements of professional treatment liability insurance and public and products liability, which helps against claims over bad advice.
Public liability insurance
In your line of work, unfortunately, accidents happen – whether a client injures their back after tripping on battle ropes, or you’re training them at home and accidentally drop a medicine ball on their tablet. If they decide to act against you due to an incident, professional, treatment and public liability insurance is there to cover the associated legal and compensation costs. This policy provides public liability cover, for help if someone claims they’ve been injured, suffered illness or their property was damaged because of your services.
Personal accident insurance
Personal accident insurance is especially pertinent for self-employed fitness instructors who might need the reassurance of cover when they’re unable to work. You could injure yourself demonstrating an exercise while leading a boot camp or have a fall at home. Whatever the circumstances, if you’re injured, you might be unable to train clients for a while. A personal accident policy can help to cover your expenses while you concentrate on recovery – hopefully, you’ll be back at the gym in no time.
Cyber and data insurance
As a personal trainer, you have access to sensitive client details every day and it’s your responsibility to handle that data with care. It’s likely you have everything stored digitally, from personal client information to the schedule and particulars of training plans. Sometimes, no matter how careful you are, hackers can gain access to your files and the information you hold. Cyber insurance may help with related costs, plus the recovery of systems and data to swiftly get you back to business.
A range of Hiscox policies could be used to create a robust package of cover for a personal trainer including employers’ liability insurance, a commercial property policy and insurance for your equipment.
These are just some of the types of business insurance for personal trainers that we can offer. We can provide other specific types of cover and build them into a policy that’s tailored to the exact needs of your business.
Get your quoteInsurance for personal trainers: FAQs
Do personal trainers need insurance for training clients outdoors?
Your PT insurance package may cover you wherever you train your clients, since it can be tailored to your circumstances. Therefore, if you coach clients in outdoor public spaces, such as parks or playing fields, you will be able to include a combined professional, treatment and public liability policy which may provide cover if a member of the public trips on a skipping rope. Equipment insurance could help ensure your kit is also covered if damaged.
What insurance do I need for my personal training equipment?
Without your equipment, from medicine balls to resistance bands, you’re unable to carry out your job properly or provide the best service. This is why it could be useful to cover your kit with a portable equipment insurance policy so items can be quickly replaced or repaired.
When you’re calculating how much personal trainer insurance is, there are lots of things to consider, including the value of your equipment.
Do you need insurance to teach fitness online?
Personal trainers will often find they gain reassurance from having business insurance to teach fitness, even if this happens solely online. This is because many of the risks that come with working as a personal trainer are still present online – your equipment such as your laptop could become damaged and need repair, you could be injured and unable to work or a cyber-attack could target your email account or systems.
Employers’ liability insurance could also be a legal requirement (external link) if you employ someone else as part of your online fitness instructor business. This rule could apply whether they work as a PT or something else.
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